Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Pacoima, Glassell Park and 7 other L.A. areas
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in nine L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Three neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Pacoima was the most unusual, recording 11 reports compared with a weekly average of 6.2 over the last three months. Glassell Park topped the list of six neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Police search of hotel registries constitutional, court says
A Los Angeles ordinance that requires hotel owners to keep guest registries and permit police to inspect them without a search warrant does not violate the constitutional rights of the owners, a divided federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. A panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against a motel owner whose guest registries have been searched by Los Angeles police without consent.
Los Angeles Times

How to protect against vehicle break-ins
From Sunday, July 8 through Saturday, July 14, at least 33 vehicles in Northeast L.A. were broken into, according to a news statement issued by the LAPD Northeast Community Police Station on Monday. Exactly a third (11) of the break-ins occurred during daytime, and two-thirds (22) between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., the communiqué, from the Northeast Station's Senior Lead Office said. Based on statistics provided by CrimeMapping.com, a repository of nationwide crime data to which the LAPD is a contributor, four vehicles were burglarized in Eagle Rock.
Eagle Rock Patch

Paparazzo in Justin Bieber pursuit may face charges
A photographer pursuing Justin Bieber in a recent high-speed chase on the 101 Freeway may be charged criminally, L.A. city prosecutors said Tuesday. Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the L.A. city attorney's office, said prosecutors have received an investigation report from the California Highway Patrol identifying a photographer who pursued Bieber on July 6, the day the pop singer was ticketed for speeding.
Los Angeles Times

Police, relatives search for missing woman; car found abandoned in Mission area
Police and relatives are looking for a missing woman whose car was found abandoned in the Mission area on Sunday. Denise Garzon, 42, hasn't been heard from since. Her daughter, Natalie, said her mom sent text messages that day telling her where to find her car. It was found near Van Nuys and Roscoe boulevards with her purse, wallet and phone still inside. Denise Garzon was living in the 14600 block of Roscoe, but lately had been staying in Panorama City. Her family told police she suffers from depression.
Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD hears from Pennsylvania state AG, who likens Sandusky case to daily sex assault cases
At a conference Tuesday, Pennsylvania state attorney general Linda Kelly drew parallels between the high-profile Jerry Sandusky child molestation case and local sexual assault cases California detectives and prosecutors investigate daily. Kelly was the keynote speaker at a sexual assault conference sponsored by the Rape Treatment Center and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Southern California Public Radio

Covert FBI power to obtain phone data faces rare test
Early last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a secret letter to a phone company demanding that it turn over customer records for an investigation. The phone company then did something almost unheard of: It fought the letter in court. The U.S. Department of Justice fired back with a serious accusation. It filed a civil complaint claiming that the company, by not handing over its files, was interfering "with the United States' sovereign interests" in national security.
Wall Street Journal

Pensions

Pension funds seriously underfunded, studies find
Corporate and public pension funds across the country are seriously underfunded, threatening the retirement security of workers and straining the financial health of state and local governments, according to a pair of independent studies. The looming shortfall, and the move by corporations to 401(k)-type plans in which the level of investment is controlled by employees, could keep many aging baby boomers from retiring, said Howard Silverblatt, a senior S&P Dow Jones Indices analyst and the report's author.
Los Angeles Times

Municipal Budgets

Pension costs not the core of San Bernardino's problem
A sharp spike in pension costs is not the reason an alarmed San Bernardino city council voted last week to authorize filing for bankruptcy, fearing the city may not have enough money to make a full payment to employees next month. The city's pension payments climbed steadily from a little over $5 million in 2000 to about $23 million in 2008. But the payments have remained at roughly $23 million since then, and increases forecast in the next few years are gradual.
Capitol Weekly

City Government

New task force unveiled to address LAFD response times
The Los Angeles Fire Commission has formed a new task force to help address lingering questions about its emergency response time data. The task force will work to ensure the accuracy of the department's data and make sure that information is shared clearly with the public, officials said at a meeting of the commission Tuesday. The creation of the task force comes after a recent audit by the city controller found major problems with the department's data and an inconsistent methodology for calculating response response-time statistics.
Los Angeles Times